Seasonal shift in epidemics of respiratory syncytial virus infection in Japan
Open Access
- 11 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Epidemiology and Infection
- Vol. 149, 1-9
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821000340
Abstract
In Japan, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection generally has occurred during autumn and winter. However, a possible change in the seasonal trend of RSV infection has been observed recently. The current study was conducted to determine whether the epidemic season of RSV infection in Japan has indeed changed significantly. We used expectation-based Poisson scan statistics to detect periods with high weekly reported RSV cases (epidemic cluster), and the epidemic clusters were detected between September and December in the 2012-2016 seasons while those were detected between July and October in the 2017-2019 seasons. Non-linear and linear ordinary least squares regression models were built to evaluate whether there is a difference in year trend in the epidemic seasonality, and the epidemic season was shifted to earlier in the year in 2017-2019 compared to that in 2012-2016. Although the reason for the shift is unclear, this information may help in clinical practice and public health.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus Seasonality — United States, 2014–2017Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 2018
- Humidity and respiratory virus transmission in tropical and temperate settingsEpidemiology and Infection, 2014
- Shift in the timing of respiratory syncytial virus circulation in a subtropical megalopolis: Implications for immunoprophylaxisJournal of Medical Virology, 2012